Archive for October, 2011
-
Posted by Stephen Bullon on October 31, 2011
Today is Halloween. All over North America, in the UK, and in other countries, children will be knocking on the doors of nearby houses saying “Trick or Treat!” in the hope that they will be given sweets (if in the UK) or candy (in North America). And people will put candles inside grinning, hollowed out [...]
Read the full article
-
Posted by Laine Redpath Cole on October 31, 2011
This month we’ve been looking into the murky world of subcultural English. As we did last month, we’ve asked our wonderful guest bloggers to answer a question on the topic and have put their answers in a single post for your enjoyment. The question was: ‘What’s the weirdest subcultural English word you’ve heard and what [...]
Read the full article -
Posted by Kati Sule on October 28, 2011
This post contains a selection of links related to recent language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English, language change, education in general, and language learning and teaching in particular. Feel free to contact us if you would like to [...]
Read the full article -
Posted by Kati Sule on October 28, 2011
This week’s ‘language in new media’ post brings you a new radio fragment from ABC’s Radio Australia. In earlier broadcasts, the origins of koala and well-known local flora, such as acacia and wattle, were explained. In this excerpt, Susan Butler, Editor of The Macquarie Dictionary, explains how Australian plants like boronia, pittosporum and melaleuca got [...]
Read the full article -
Posted by Andrew Delahunty on October 27, 2011
Following on from Ben Trawick-Smith’s post earlier in the week, freelance author and lexicographer Andrew Delahunty continues the discussion of the sublanguage of theatre. ____________ I’m a member of an amateur theatre group. Drama is, of course, all about language, the words of the play. But there is also a particular variety of language used [...]
Read the full article -
Posted by Laine Redpath Cole on October 27, 2011
cheapuccino (noun) low-quality, inexpensive cappuccino, e.g. from a vending machine I didn’t have time to have proper lunch, so I bought some snacks and cheapuccino at a gas station. (Submitted by Monika Dołęga from Poland) Times have changed. From what I can tell, the cheapuccino has emerged as a result of trying to cut costs [...]
Read the full article -
Posted by Kati Sule on October 25, 2011
In this weekly microblog, we bring to English language learners more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary. These tips are based on areas of English (e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, etc) which learners often find difficult. This week’s language tip is about the noun right. When the noun right means ‘something that you are morally or [...]
Read the full article -
Posted by Ben Trawick-Smith on October 25, 2011
Subcultural English month continues with a guest post by Ben Trawick-Smith from Dialect Blog. Ben began his dialect fascination while working in theatre. He has worked as an actor, playwright, director, critic and dialect coach. Other passions include linguistics, urban development, philosophy and film. He lives with his wife in Seattle, Washington, in the USA. [...]
Read the full article -
Posted by Stan Carey on October 24, 2011
Many neologisms come to us from science and technology, where perpetual cycles of discoveries and developments create a constant need for new terminology. I examined one of them, the familiar blog, a few weeks ago, after several Macmillan Dictionary Blog contributors selected it as their favourite “online English” word. Another one worth a closer look [...]
Read the full article -
Posted by Kati Sule on October 21, 2011
This post contains a selection of links related to recent language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English, language change, education in general, and language learning and teaching in particular. Feel free to contact us if you would like to [...]
Read the full article
